Fun Facts

A Few Things I Remember

• 1981—Drew David Hockney’s portrait and gave it to him, while at the Slade School, University College London.

• 1982—Worked on a story layout with Michael Moore while volunteering at Detroit Metro Times.

* 1985—I redesigned the Detroit News Sunday Magazine one weekend, I didn't realize that you shouldn't do that. Luckily, my boss, Lisa Velders, liked it enough to show the Editor-in Chief and Publisher and we instituted the design shortly after. The redesign won a pile of awards and special notice from designer Roger Black, one of my heros.

• 1986—Moved to Washington DC, recruited to work at the Washington Post magazine by design guru Brian Noyes and Editor Jay Lovinger.

• 1989—Sold our Duplex house on Tewksbury St. Takoma Park, DC to the illustrious reporter and news legend Gwen Ifill.

• 1989—Moved to Atlanta, GA. I was lured there by John Huey to help start up SOUTHPOINT magazine. It was shut down within a year, unfortunately.

• 1990—Luckily, I was hired by Michael Reagan at Turner Broadcasting, a very entrepreneurial company. Soon, we were publishing books in every possible category.

• 1991—Ian Ballantine took me to meet Leonard Riggio at Barnes & Noble to convince him that he needed to make his stores places where people could hang out, drink coffee and look at galleries of art from selected illustrated books. I did a mini mock-up to help convince him.

• 1992—Helped develop the website for TBS called spiv.com, which WIRED magazine put on it’s HOT LIST in early 1993.

• 1993—Drank (about) ten shots of tequila at a bar in L.A. with the former astronaut Alan Shepard, he bought because he liked my book jacket design for his book “Moonshot.”

• 1993—Sat between Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera while they argued with one another at a Super Bowl dinner in Tucson, AZ.

• 1997—Ripped pants from zipper to waist as I jumped up to accept the Individual Design Achievement award from Literary Market Place at a luncheon at the New York Public Library. I learned the lesson of winning the hard way...

• 1997—Son: Michael Hayes born

• 1997—Fred Siebert (MTV etc. fame) sent my firstborn son documentation of a star that he put in his name.

• 1998—I worked with Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe on a Sports Illustrated sponsored, Arthur Ashe Foundation HIV/AIDS benefit program booklet. The AAFoundation event was attended by many luminaries at the NY Hilton. I sat near Muhammad Ali, and when I had a chance to speak with him, we ended up talking for more than twenty minutes. His voice was very low and I had to put my ear right up to his face to hear. I told him how I "secretly" liked him as a kid, a fact that I hid from my Father, who thought of Ali as a cocky "son-of-a-gun." I went on to tell Ali that my father came around and really respected him very highly, especially for standing up for his principles when he was stripped of his boxing title, because of his conscientious objector status. Ali listened to my story and when I was done, he whispered to me "Thank you so much for telling me that," he then hugged me and kissed me on my right cheek.

• 2000—Daughter: Lily Frances born

• 2001—Handed over a check for $658,000 to the New York City Fire Department to purchase a new truck— The money came from proceeds from a 9/11 book that Abrams and New York Magazine produced immediately following that tragedy. It was the only thing we could do to react.

• 2002—I decided that we needed a very special portrait of Paul Gottlieb. The long-time Publisher and Bon Vivant of Abrams publishing. I commissioned several artists for an intended send-off from Abrams as Paul was leaving to go to the Aperture Foundation. And then, shockingly, he died before we could have the grand party. The reason that I asked several artists/friends to do a “piece” of Paul, was because I saw this as a tribute to a man who had done so much for so many, and that they all added to his colorful career and legacy... So, I hoped for 12 artists to take a piece of the Gottlieb "collage." Alex Katz, Christo, Daniel Brush, Graeme Base, Mary Frank, William Wegman, I received digital artwork from the edgy British publisher Edward Booth Clibborn, and a piece from Philip Pearlstein. Others commissioned, but who never completed were: Audrey Flack, Geoffrey Holder, Stone Roberts and Tom Buechner.Originally, I had created a master list that included many more artists. There were a few who really wanted to participate, but couldn’t for some reason or another. For example, Maurice Sendak was too ill at the time, but applauded the idea and congratulated me for the effort, quite vigorously in a highly decorative handwritten note.

• 2002—Son: Caleb John born

• 2002—Went to the Dakota building to apartment 72 to propose designs to Yoko Ono for her YES book and video project. She was so cool, easiest design approval ever.

• 2003—Swapped paintings with artist Julian Schnabel, although he never actually sent me his. I have a 2’ x 3’ photo that he left in my office though.

• 2004—Alan Dershowitz poked his head into my office at my corner office while working at Abrams Publishing, 100 Fifth Ave, Fifth floor. Abrams was about to move and Esq. Dershowitz needed a NYC office. He was a nice guy… I asked him about OJ and Mike Tyson, who he represented.

• 2005—Irving Penn gave me a box of pencils, I guess because I went to see him with one tucked behind my ear.

• 2009—Helped Arianna Huffington as she tripped and broke her high heel, into the holding area for Webby award winners at Cipriani Wall Street, by breaking the heel off of her other shoe, making them even.

• 2018—An online & print project that I co-founded, and have been the creative director and designer for titled: DEAR DAVE, was a winner of the 2108 Photography Magazine of the Year from The Lucie Awards on October 28th, 2018 at Carnegie Hall. DEAR DAVE is a side project that started in 2007 with founder Stephen Frailey, Editor-in-Chief.